Nearly three months after being forced to undergo a back surgery he had long attempted to avoid, Braves pitcher Tim Hudson has reported to Spring Training feeling a sense of relief that had not been present for much of the past decade.

"I definitely feel like I'm getting around a lot better," Hudson said. "I felt like Fred Sanford for two or three years walking around the locker room."

Hudson will likely miss at least the first month of this season as he continues to recover from a Nov. 28 surgical procedure that fused the L5/S1 disc in his back. Atlanta neurosurgeon Dr. Stevan Wray went through the 36-year-old hurler's stomach to insert a sponge filled with bone-producing proteins.